Windows Phone will get a proper file manager

Joe Belfiore, Microsoft’s VP of Windows and User Experience held his “Ask Me Anything” on Reddit today. There was a very active flow of information, but one item in particular stuck out about imminent plans for Windows Phone 8.1, and that was the deployment of a full file manager for the mobile platform.

It was just a simple question, “Hi Mr. Joe…is there any plans for file managers on WP.” Joe responded in a very enthusiastic fashion and gave the person who asked a free Cortana T-shirt.

Indeed, Joe “avoided tweeting on this very topic just for all you redditors. Seriously.” He then noted that he has been running a build of the file manager on a couple of his phones and it is getting in “pretty good shape.”

He then expressed the desired time line to have this feature added to the Windows Phone Store by the end of May. Even better, he shared a bunch of images to show us what File Manager in Windows Phone looks like.

The absence of a proper file manager has been a valid criticism of the Windows Phone platform since its inception. Given the nature of the Windows ecosystem as a whole, not having such a feature in a Windows product is like not having sand at the beach.

It isn't good news for competition because all it says is that we learn 3 years after the competition does. If they released WP with all of this it would have been good for competition. Now it is just playing catch up by going slower than the competition....which is tragically not going to work.

then u guess u dont even know a bit about MS at all. theoratically there stretegy must be first get a hold on nokia devices division. who knows all these features were ready back in 2011 just waited out nokia to give in then release all the good stuff.

Yes, nobody wants closed. Meanwhile, in the real worl, Windows (Closed) is curb stomping everyone in the desktop/laptop arena except for Apple, whose OSX and Mac business (Closed) takes a hefty chunk of the profit out of the market.

In the mobile game, Apple's iOS (Closed) take's the lion's share of the profit, while Microsoft and Samsung take the rest.

So, to summarize, "Closed" dominates the tech world, while "Open" begs for a seat at the table. Of course nobody wants "Closed," judging by that summary.

23.express77 (unregistered)

But the closed desktop windows lets you do anything without stupid restrictions and you don't even have to root/windowbreak. But WP is also removing their restrictions. Will get one when all those restrictions are over.

Sony has said that they will only build a WP if there is enough demand for it. They currently believe there is not enough market demand for one, and will thus stick with their "Android Only" strategy for the time being. They are even selling their loss-making pc platform, which only makes Windows pc's / laptops.

You need to see a doctor about your myopic condition. Google has Android filled to the gills with data gathering algorithms. How do you think the company makes billions off of selling ads, while giving away use of Gmail, YouTube, Maps, Android Open Source Project? You think Android is this wonderful utopia? Larry Page has some beachfront property in Nebraska to sell you.

Android is open..yet you need "Google" to release the new version of the OS for others OEMs to use em. "Microsoft" does the same thing too..Android offers customization, what else is open for the OEMs to change? AOSP is open..not the evil twin named Android from Google..!!! WP might be closed when it comes to customization, other than that its as open as Google's Android..What's locked is what needs to be locked and normal users needn't access for the proper functioning of the OS. If you're really geek enough, you can access anything on WP as well.

"Android is an open source, open system OS that benefits a diverse ecosystem of companies"

This is NOT Google's Android. You are talking about AOSP, which is short for Android Open Source Project.

Also, I don't get why end users care that much about Android being "open", they aren't going to develop for it or really benefit from the developer properties of Open Source. And you know, if companies as big as Apple and Windows are doing closed source software, it happens to be quite good.

Windows Phone 8 has had file manager apps for as long as I have used it. It won't let you get into private parts with OS and other apps data, which after Androids "shady apps can do whatever they want with your device" I consider a good thing. Anything you would need to access, like documents / video / music is there along with OneDrive and lan shares.

Even before Belfiore announcement great third party file browsers like Aerize Explorer or FileEx etc was on WP.

You gotta lol at the Android fanboys who talk about WP when they haven't used it or they would know this.

WP has many File managers the difference is that this one is native to WP whereas on Android you still have to download a 3rd party solution.
If im wrong about Android feel free to correct me no one is perfect, I've used many Android devices in the past but never saw a native File manager like what WP is bringing to the OS.

The sad thing about Microsoft's file manager is the vast waste of screen real estate. Files/directories that might have fit on N screen pages with a more compact UI now fit on 3N to 4N pages instead. This results in additional cognitive load on the user who has to remember more because it is out of sight.

Of course, this sort of thing is generally true of WP. The UI might be easily visible, but there is of course a price to be paid.

There are basic elements of UI design that you should consider learning about. One of them is cognitive load. Generally speaking, it is not a good thing to make the user switch screens many times or have to remember things that could have been easily shown on the screen.

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Just like computers, human brains have a limited amount of processing power (as further discussed in our course on The Human Mind and Usability). When the amount of information coming in exceeds our ability to handle it, our performance suffers. We may take longer to understand information, miss important details, or even get overwhelmed and abandon the task.

In the field of user experience, we use the following definition: the cognitive load imposed by a user interface is the amount of mental resources that is required to operate the system. Informally, you can think of mental resources as "brain power" — more formally, we're talking about slots in working memory.

18.SleepingOz (unregistered)

Don't waste your time arguing with these WP fanboys.
If they want to waste their times scrolling when they can have all the information needed efficiently displayed in one place, let them scroll, dude. It's their choice.

Man, hitting full speed and 8.1 isn't even officially out yet. So to keep count, they've improved multitasking to be fully functional, improved IE, added cortana, improved social extensibility for the long haul, improved customization, and will have a file manager by months end. The future holds interactive live tiles, live tiles that can transfer info from windows to windows phone, and integration with RT.
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